[Infowarrior] - Airlines May Treat Passengers `Like Freight' to Beat Fuel Surge

[Richard Forno]

Airlines May Treat Passengers `Like Freight' to Beat Fuel Surge

By Michael Janofsky
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June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Imagine two scales at the airline ticket  
counter, one for your bags and one for you. The price of a ticket  
depends upon the weight of both.

That may not be so far-fetched.

``You listen to the airline CEOs, and nothing is beyond their  
imagination,'' said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air  
Transport Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. ``They  
have already begun to think exotically. Nothing is not under the  
microscope.'' He declined to discuss what any individual airline might  
be contemplating, including charging passengers based on weight.

With fuel costs almost tripling since 2000, now accounting for as much  
as 40 percent of operating expenses at some carriers, according to the  
ATA, airlines are cutting costs and raising revenue in ways that once  
were unthinkable. U.S. Airways Group Inc. has eliminated snacks. Delta  
Air Lines Inc. is charging $25 for telephone reservations. AMR Corp.'s  
American Airlines last month became the first U.S. company to charge  
$15 for one checked bag.

Even a cold drink may be harder to come by aloft.

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